CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

₊˚࿐࿔ 𖥧‧₊⚘ ❀༉. 𓏲｡

"What do you mean you can't find him?"

"I mean, I can't find him!" Sylvie said. "I went to his cabin to apologize—"

"Wait, apologize?" Annabeth questioned. "Why were you trying to apologize to him?"

"I," she paused in her distress. "Nothing. We fought."

"Again?"

"That's not the point, Annabeth! I swear on the gods, he's missing."

Annabeth finally glanced up from her laptop, and Sylvie felt like she was actually crazy for being the only one who noticed this. "Are you sure, or are you just freaking out?"

"I'm freaking out because I'm sure!" Sylvie snapped. "I looked everywhere I could think of after he wasn't in his cabin—Unless he's somewhere frolicking in the woods, Percy's missing. Again. And I promise if he somehow followed after Rachel on that stupid ass vacation—"

"Sylvie," Annabeth interjected. "Breathe."

Sylvie breathed, although begrudgingly. Percy was missing, and Annabeth was worried about pointless shit like bodily functions.

"Let's go look for him again," she continued after Sylvie listened. "Then, if we really can't find him, we'll tell Chiron. He probably knows, anyway."

Let it be said that Sylvie felt an insane pride in her chest at being able to tell Annabeth I told you so when Percy was absolutely nowhere to be seen. Seriously. Sylvie marked THE DAY SYLVIE WAS RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG: AUGUST 14 on a piece of paper and forced Annabeth to keep it forever. She was never going to let the daughter of Athena live this down. Ever. If Sylvie lived past being a teenager, she would spend her entire adult life teasing Annabeth about this momentous day. Until their hair turned gray (well, a strand of Annabeth's hair was already gray). Until they died, even.

Okay back to worrying about Percy.

For some surprising reason, Sylvie had a little bit of hope for Percy's location when they went to Chiron for answers. Maybe Percy had just snuck off to Rachel (a less than ideal situation, but at least she would know where he was), or maybe Chiron just sent Percy off on another mission (though right after the one with Beckendorf, she wouldn't know why). Either way, Chiron seemed to know everything, so Sylvie was a little optimistic.

She shouldn't have been.

Chiron didn't know where Percy was, and he went through the same process as Sylvie and Annabeth did—he didn't really believe it, made them search a third time, and then declared Percy missing. After that, they got the entire camp searching high and low for where Percy could be. It was a fourth and feeble attempt, this time ordered by Sylvie actually, because she could feel her heart rate speeding up by the minute. All of this felt too familiar—Percy being absent from camp, gone without any trace, and absolutely no one knew where he was besides himself.

Sylvie tried to calm down, she really did, but you'd be very surprised to hear that did not happen.

"Are you sure you haven't heard anything on your phone?" Sylvie asked again. "No recent calls or messages?"

"Sylvie," Annabeth exhaled, agitated and worried, "for the thirty-second time, I have no missed notifications. I promise."

"Okay, but maybe you just—"

"How about this?" she asked. "You hold onto my phone until we find Percy, if it will make you feel better. Then you can check if he sends anything."

Sylvie didn't even get to manage a word out before Annabeth was shoving her phone into Sylvie's grasp. The thing was, half-bloods really weren't supposed to have or use phones. The signal could attract monsters, so it was sort of forbidden. But Annabeth (and other campers who felt rebellious) still secretly kept a phone anyways. Now that Sylvie was in possession of it, she sort of felt like a delinquent, but she was actually very relieved to be holding it. Sylvie could anxiously check Annabeth's notifications whenever she wished (every three seconds) without having to constantly pester Annabeth about it.

"So what do we do now?" Sylvie finally said. All the campers were as antsy as her—Percy was sort of even more important to camp than Beckendorf was. They couldn't lose him and Percy just back-to-back like that.

"I—I don't know, Sylvie," Annabeth worried, "maybe you should call his mom. See if he decided to go back home."

Sylvie sighed shakily. "Okay, but... what if she doesn't know where he is? I mean, none of us know where he is."

"I do."

Suddenly a dryad jumped out of the juniper, and almost everyone yelped in shock. It was, ironically, Juniper the tree nymph that had elected to scare the shit out of them. After Sylvie recovered from her shock, she processed the depth of what Juniper had said.

"I—What do you mean, Juniper?"

"I saw him here in the woods with that creepy kid."

Everyone paused, not understanding for a bit.

"Nico?" Annabeth asked.

"Whatever his name is!" Juniper bristled. "I was trying to convince Leneus to help me find Grover, but Nico and that huge dog interrupted everything. Then Percy showed up and he got mad at Leneus and he grabbed Leneus's shirt and shoved him against a poor tree—"

"Wait," said Sylvie, "Percy did that?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Sylvie, think about it later. What else happened, Juniper?"

"Well, Leneus fell over and scrambled away, that fat idiot," Juniper grumbled. "I asked Nico if he knew anything about Grover since he's a son of Hades, but he hasn't heard anything. Then that dog tried peeing on my dress so I left!"

"That's it? You didn't ask what Nico wanted with Percy?"

"I only care about Grover! So, no."

"Alright," Annabeth mumbled, "I was just asking."

"He's still missing if any of you care!" Juniper snapped. Sylvie and Annabeth shared eye contact.

"Er, thanks for telling us what you know, Juniper," Sylvie said. "We'll... leave you to it."

They all left the forest to congregate near the cabins. Or, some of them did. A lot of campers lost interest. The Ares kids and some Apollo kids resumed their war. Some people hadn't even searched to begin with because they never cared in the first place.

Anyways, Sylvie wondered, "What did Nico want with Percy? I mean, no one's seen him since last summer. Right?"

"That's the last time I saw him," agreed Will Solace.

"Right, and he just appears to camp and takes Percy away?" Annabeth muttered. "That doesn't make sense. He could've told one of us they were leaving."

"I hope my blade's the cursed one so I can reap his soul," Sylvie scowled. Then, "Sorry. I don't mean that."

"Yes, you do," said Florian.

"Who asked you?"

"Guys," Cedar stopped them before they could start. "Not the time. Shouldn't we be trying to figure out where Nico and Percy are?"

Annabeth nodded. "Cedar is right. I'll try Iris-messaging and hope it goes through to him, but...

"What if Nico took him to the Underworld?" Mickey worried.

"Exactly," she sighed. "There's no way to know."

"Great. That's great," Sylvie cheered in mock enthusiasm. The sarcasm was evident in her tone. "I just love Percy so much."

Florian pointed at her. "But you literally do."

"Seriously, Florian, who asked?!"

╰━━━ ◦ ❀ ◦ ❀◦ ━━━╯

So Annabeth's Iris-message didn't make it through, and no one knew why. Of course, a reason could be that they were in the Underworld, but it wasn't the only option. Annabeth said they couldn't just go around assuming things especially since there were no clues as to where Percy was.

Sylvie sort of thought she was only telling Sylvie this so that she didn't panic further, but in Annabeth's words, there was no way to know. All Sylvie could really do was consistently check Annabeth's phone within every minute, and maybe even play some Subway Surfers to try and calm herself down. It didn't work, but the game was actually pretty fun. Sylvie wanted a phone of her own now.

The entire day Sylvie and Annabeth tried doing as much as they could to track Percy's whereabouts, which was next to nothing by the way. Sylvie tried calling Percy's mother, Sally Jackson, but she was being far too weird on the call for Sylvie's liking. She said something about knowing Percy was with Nico, then got so nervous that Sylvie worried the woman was working up into a panic attack. Sylvie politely ended the phone call, and although Sally didn't tell Sylvie much, Sylvie knew now that Percy really was up to something dangerous.

Because he'd seen his mom, which meant he'd needed to tell her goodbye, and now Sally was too worried to even speak of why he did so.

If Percy wasn't dead, Sylvie would kill him.

Camp activities were resuming on like normal, though the normal of late wasn't really normal at all. Ares and Apollo went to war with each other, people trained harder in the arena because everyone could sense that something was coming soon, and the eyes of all campers were turned fearful and weary.

Typical demigod Friday, to be honest.

The only significant thing that happened that day—besides Beckendorf's ceremony and Percy's millionth disappearance—was the deescalation (or escalation?) of the Ares/Apollo battle. Basically, Mickey was incredulous that her sister just lost her boyfriend to this impending war, and Phoenix still had the audacity to prioritize fighting for a fucking chariot. They got into a screaming match in front of everyone, and Sylvie could confirm it... wasn't good. In all honesty, she couldn't tell if they were still dating or not. But it wasn't her business, and she didn't really care when Percy was MIA like this.

The important part was that Mickey's whole argument put things into perspective for Michael Yew. He decided to call off the entire fight, letting Clarisse have it. But he threw a few too many curses and insults in there, and Clarisse's pride was already too bruised to go back. So while there was peace around camp, the silence felt entirely eerie. The longer it lasted, the deeper that pit in Sylvie's stomach got.

She didn't have a good feeling that Annabeth was right about Clarisse changing her mind to help them in the end.

She didn't have a good feeling about anything, actually.

Not even Sylvie's siblings tried calming her down, because they were freaking out themselves. Even Cedar could tell something horrible would happen soon—He was getting last-minute training in with a sword.

About two years ago, Sylvie laughed at Cedar's insistence on remaining a pacifist, knowing that desire would be ruptured by this gruesome lifestyle. What she didn't know, however, was how much her heart would pang at actually seeing Cedar's morals fall in the name of saving his home. He wasn't good with a weapon, not by any means, but he was trying. Sylvie saw a lot of him in herself. She just hoped that didn't mean bad things for him.

Regardless, Katie tried teaching Cedar to the best of his ability. Sylvie was too busy on worry-for-Percy duty, and Florian was too busy on spend-time-with-Pollux duty, so neither of them were available. Miranda went with Katie and Cedar, because she wanted to practice as much as she could.

Then when it came to Mickey or Phoenix's whereabouts, Sylvie just didn't know. She just figured both of them were sulking in their cabins. She wasn't about to go and get in the middle of that raging train wreck.

So the miserable day passed into miserable night, where Sylvie couldn't eat dinner because she was so anxious. Annabeth didn't even bother coming to the dining pavilion, so that she could get more time in to look through Daedelus's laptop. Sylvie decided there was no point bothering either, so she retreated back to her cabin as well. Instead of obsessing over a laptop, it was Annabeth's phone she watched like a hawk.

Sylvie spent so much time looking at it that she didn't even recall accidentally falling asleep.

╰━━━ ◦ ❀ ◦ ❀◦ ━━━╯

Sylvie woke up the next morning to find out that she missed a call from Percy. Oops.

He left Annabeth's phone a voicemail, but it was so confusing and all over the place that she could barely make sense of it. Percy apparently needed all the demigods to leave Camp-Half Blood behind and come to Manhattan because something bad was going to happen to Olympus by tonight. No context. Just pack up the campers and go. Not even a please or goodbye.

Sylvie still tried obeying Percy's command to the best of her abilities. He was lucky he was cute.

The first thing Sylvie did was get Annabeth up, because she was a much better leader (and much better at ordering people around) than Sylvie was. Annabeth managed to corral every single cabin into one of the three Delphi Strawberry Service vans that Camp Half-Blood had on hand. Of course, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, and Artemis didn't have any campers present. Zeus's only daughter was a Hunter, Hera and Artemis didn't have children, Poseidon's only son was Percy's annoying self, and Clarisse refused to let the Ares cabin offer their help.

The Apollo cabin filled up an entire white van, because they had the largest cabin throughout all of Camp-Half Blood (if you didn't count unclaimed children as members of the Hermes cabin). Speaking of, everyone from Cabin 11 just dispersed into the remaining two vans. One held Athena and Hephaestus kids, while the other harbored the Demeter, Aphrodite, and Dionysus cabins.

Sylvie would enjoy her arrangement, if she wasn't sitting in the passenger seat next to their harpy driver (which was basically a demonic human/chicken hybrid with a bad attitude; they used the harpies mostly for cleaning the camp, but they did pretty well in midtown traffic too). In the back of the van, her siblings, Mickey's siblings, Pollux, and a few unclaimed children all sat anxiously yet eagerly. Everyone was wearing battle armor, even Mickey, so you knew this was a serious situation. Florian tried making everyone smile by cracking jokes here and there, but even his laughs weren't as genuine as they could be.

He barely even sang along when "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)" from Hamilton came on.

Sylvie was starting to think the camp van radio stations were insane, because right after that, "Hot In Here" by Nelly started blaring.

"Turn it up!" Pollux cheered.

Everyone in the van started laughing, even Silena, and finally the mood in the van lifted. The harpy squawked incredulously at the implications of the song, but the immature teenagers only found that more hilarious. Mickey kept her hands over Cedar's ears as they belted out the lyrics.

"IT'S GETTIN' HOT IN HERE, SO TAKE OFF ALL YOUR CLOTHES!"

If you ever need a song to prepare yourself for battle, Nelly's got you.

Sitting in the front seat of Camp Half-Blood's fake strawberry van, looking back at the people she'd grown up with since she was eleven, Sylvie couldn't help but feel like she'd be okay with whatever happened to her next. As long as it was surrounded by these people. As long as she was doing it with them, she had a feeling she'd be okay.

Then Annabeth's phone started ringing again.

All the appreciation and happiness and light-heartedness Sylvie was feeling flooded out of her body at once. She panicked at the incoming call so hard that she turned the radio off completely. From the back, everyone let out Aww!s and Boo!s, but Sylvie didn't do anything about it.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Sylvie shouted on an instant, making everyone in the van flinch, even the harpy. "You know, I actually wanted to apologize to you yesterday? Now you pull this shit and you can't even—"

"For five seconds can you not?" Percy interjected tiredly.

"I'm going to kill you."

"Yeah, sure." Then, "Did you get my message?"

"I really am going to kill you!" she cried. "Where have you been? Your message said almost nothing! I—We've been worried sick!"

"I'll fill you in later," he said. "Where are you?"

Sylvie took a glance out her window. "We're on our way like you asked, almost to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. But, Perce, what're you planning? We've left camp virtually undefended, and there's no way the gods—"

"Trust me," he said. "I'll see you there."

"Are you serious right now?!"

"Gotta go. L—Uh—Bye."

Whatever that meant.

It was late afternoon when the three white vans pulled up to the curb. Sylvie could see Mrs. O'Leary bounding up and down Fifth Avenue, licking cabs and sniffing hot dog carts. Nobody seemed to notice her, although people did swerve away and look confused when she came close. She also saw Percy. It took all of Sylvie's willpower not to go up and strangle him as all the campers climbed out.

Chiron came out of the van last. His horse-half was compacted into his magic wheelchair, so he used the handicap lift. After doing a head count, Sylvie concluded there were forty-five campers in all. Good. That was the same amount they'd come with, so at least they hadn't lost any demigods on the way here.

It wasn't that much to fight any battles, but it was still the largest group of half-bloods Sylvie had ever seen gathered in one place outside camp. Sylvie felt nervous. They were probably sending out so much demigod aura that every monster in the northeastern United States knew they were here.

Sylvie locked eyes with Annabeth to confirm they were thinking the same thing. Together they went up to Percy, though unfortunately didn't succumb to their urges to attack him. Sylvie wanted to, really, but she paused. Percy was staring at her, almost in another world entirely. His gaze was so intense that Sylvie's heart sped up in a way that made her feel like the war was starting right now. But this was a different battle completely that raged on in Percy's eyes. Sylvie didn't know what it was.

Her agitation at Percy fell, and she frowned. "What is it?"

"What's what?" he asked.

"You're looking at me funny."

Percy blinked out of it in realization, but a small smile tugged at his lips. Why Percy was smiling in the midst of all of this, Sylvie didn't know. "It's, uh, nothing." He turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

But Chiron shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher. That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

Percy couldn't even argue. Everyone was looking him expectantly.

He took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Sylv on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

Percy asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary, which neither of them looked happy about.

Chiron shook his hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."

Percy nodded shakily with a forced, confident smile.

"Let's go," he told the campers.

A security guard was sitting behind the desk in the lobby, reading New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. He glanced up when they all filed in with their weapons and armor clanking. "School group? We're about to close up."

"No," Percy said. "Six-hundredth floor."

He checked them out. His eyes were pale blue and his head was completely bald. Sylvie couldn't tell if he was human or not, but he seemed to notice their weapons, so Sylvie guessed he wasn't fooled by the Mist.

"There is no six-hundredth floor, kid." He said it like it was a required line he didn't believe. "Move along."

Percy leaned across the desk. "Forty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"

He thought about that. Then he hit a buzzer and the security gate swung open. "Make it quick."

"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," Percy added.

"Um, no," he agreed. "elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."

Percy tossed him a golden drachma and they marched through.

They decided it would take two trips to get everybody up in the elevator. Sylvie went with the first group. Shitty elevator music was playing as they ascended—that old disco song "Stayin' Alive" by Bee Gees. Sylvie just hoped they could all relate to it after this was over.

She was glad when the elevator doors finally dinged open. In front of them, a path of floating stones led through the clouds up to Mount Olympus, hovering six thousand feet over Manhattan.

Sylvie had seen Olympus once, but it still took her breath away. The mansions glittered gold and white against the sides of the mountain. Gardens bloomed on a hundred terraces. Scented smoke rose from braziers that lined the winding streets. And right at the top of the snow-capped crest rose the main palace of the gods. It looked as majestic as ever, but something seemed wrong. Then Sylvie realized the mountain was silent—no music, no voices, no laughter.

Sylvie studied Percy. You would think she'd get bored of analyzing him after 1,174 days of her life, but she never did. Something wasn't the same about him this time she did it—He was standing up straighter, radiating confidence, and for a moment Sylvie had to remind herself that Percy wasn't actually a Greek god. He sure looked like one right now, with his glowing skin, perfectly mussed-up hair, gleaming eyes, and veined arms. He was... immaculate. Sylvie wanted to preserve this sight forever. Sylvie also wanted to ruin this sight forever by pressing her lips against his and making out with him until the end of time.

"You look... different," Sylvie decided. That summarized her thoughts pretty well. "Where exactly did you go?"

The elevator doors opened again, and the second group of half-bloods joined them.

"Tell you later," he said. "Come on."

They made their way across the sky bridge into the streets of Olympus. The shops were closed. The parks were empty. A couple of Muses sat on a bench strumming flaming lyres, but their hearts didn't seem to be into it. A lone Cyclops swept the street with an uprooted oak tree. A minor godling spotted them from a balcony and ducked inside, closing his shutters.

They passed under a big marble archway with statues of Zeus and Hera on either side. Sylvie and Annabeth made faces at the queen of the gods.

"Hate her," Sylvie muttered.

"Seconded," scowled Annabeth.

"Has she been cursing you guys or something?" Percy asked.

"Just little stuff so far," Annabeth said. "Her sacred animal is the cow, right?"

"Right."

"So she sends cows after me."

Percy restrained a grin. "Cows? In San Francisco?"

"Oh, yeah," nodded Annabeth. "Usually I don't see them, but the cows leave me little presents all over the place—in our backyard, on the sidewalk, in the school hallways. I have to be careful where I step."

"Lucky," Sylvie grumbled.

Percy turned. "What does she do to you?"

"...Um—"

"Look!" Pollux cried, pointing toward the horizon. "What is that?"

They all froze. Blue lights were streaking across the evening sky toward Olympus like tiny comets. They seemed to be coming from all over the city, heading straight toward the mountain. As they got close, they fizzled out. The demigods watched them for several minutes, and they didn't seem to do any damage, but still it was strange.

"Like infrared scopes," Michael Yew muttered. "We're being targeted."

"Let's get to the palace," Percy said.

No one was guarding the hall of the gods. The gold-and-silver doors stood wide open. Their footsteps echoed as they walked into the throne room.

Of course, "room" doesn't really cover it. The place was the size of four of Sylvie's farms. High above, the blue ceiling glittered with constellations. Twelve giant empty thrones stood in a U around a heath. In one corner, a house-size globe of water hovered in the air, and inside swam their old friend the Ophiotaurus, half-cow, half-serpent.

"Moooo!" he said happily, turning in a circle.
Despite all the serious stuff going on, Sylvie had to smile.

Two years ago they'd spent a lot of time trying to save the Ophiotaurus from the Titans, and Sylvie had gotten kind of fond of him. Even when Sylvie thought he was a girl and called him Bessie.

"Hey, man," Percy said. "They treating you okay?"

"Mooo," Bessie agreed.

"Awesome," grinned Sylvie.

"Mooo!"

They walked toward the thrones, and a woman's voice said, "Hello again, Percy Jackson. You and your friends are welcome."

The woman stood by the hearth, poking the flames with a stick. She was a grown woman who wore a simple brown dress.

Percy bowed. "Lady Hestia."

Sylvie jolted into action at the realization, bowing with the rest of the demigods.

Hestia regarded Percy with her red glowing eyes. "I see you went through with your plan. You bear the curse of Achilles."

Sylvie straightened up immediately. There was shock written all over her face as the other campers muttered What did she say? What about Achilles? Sylvie could commune in this confusion entirely. If Hestia was really referring to what Sylvie thought... No, there was no way. Percy didn't do that.

Right?

"You must be careful," Hestia warned him. "You gained much on your journey. But you are still blind to the most important truth. Perhaps a glimpse is in order."

Annabeth nudged Percy. "Um... what is she talking about?"

Percy stared at Hestia again. All of a sudden, Percy's knees were buckling. Sylvie gasped and grabbed him before he could fall.

"Percy! What happened?"

"Did... Did you see that?" he asked.

"See what?" Sylvie said.

Percy glanced at Hestia, but the goddess's face was expressionless.

"How long was I out?" Percy muttered.

Sylvie knit her eyebrows. "Perce, you weren't out at all."

"Yeah," said Annabeth. "You just looked at Hestia for, like, one second and collapsed."

Sylvie was entirely confused on what was going on with him. First Hestia announced the idea Percy bore the curse of Achilles, and now he was acting as confused as her father (bad joke, bad timing, sorry). Then Percy was suddenly straightening up, pushing his shoulders back and trying to reset himself.

"Um, Lady Hestia," he said, "we've come on urgent business. We need to see—"

"We know what you need," a man's voice said.

A god shimmered into existence next to Hestia. He looked about twenty-five, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and elfish features. He wore a military pilot's flight suit, with tiny bird's wings fluttering on his helmet and his black leather boots. In the crook of his arm was a long staff entwined with two living serpents.

"I will leave you now," Hestia said. She bowed to the aviator and disappeared into smoke. Sylvie understood why she was so anxious to go. Hermes, the God of Messengers, did not look happy.

"Hello, Percy." His brow furrowed as though Hermes was annoyed with him.

Percy bowed awkwardly. "Lord Hermes."

Oh, sure, one of the snakes said in Sylvie's mind. Sylvie flinched at the uncomfortable feeling. Don't say hi to us. We're just reptiles.

George, the other snake scolded. Be polite.

"Hello, George," Percy said. "Hey, Martha."

Did you bring us a rat? George asked.

George, stop it, Martha said. He's busy!

Too busy for rats? George said. That's just sad.

"Um, Hermes," Percy said. "We need to talk to Zeus. It's important."

Hermes's eyes were steely cold. "I am his messenger. May I take a message?"

Sylvie shifted restlessly. This wasn't going as planned. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She couldn't help but wonder who shoved a stick up Hermes's ass.

"You guys," Percy said suddenly. "Why don't you do a sweep of the city? Check the defenses. See who's left in Olympus. Meet Sylv, Annabeth, and I back here in thirty minutes."

Mickey frowned. "But—"

"That's a good idea," Sylvie said. Maybe if they spoke to Hermes in private, this conversation would go better. "Connor and Travis, you two lead."

The Stolls seemed to like that—getting handed an important responsibility right in front of their dad. They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids. Sylvie wanted to give them a chance in the spotlight. "We're on it!" Travis said.

"Anything for you, Duvall!" Connor rubbed the top of her hair, ignoring both Sylvie and Percy's scowls.

They herded the others out of the throne room, leaving Sylvie, Percy, and Annabeth with Hermes. Now that it was emptier, Sylvie couldn't help but wonder why Percy wanted her to stay back too. There wasn't really anything she could bring to the table among this quartet.

"My lord," Annabeth said. "Kronos is going to attack New York. You must suspect that. My mother must have foreseen it."

"Your mother," Hermes grumbled. He scratched his back with his caduceus, and George and Martha muttered Ow, ow, ow. "Don't get me started on your mother, young lady. She's the reason I'm here at all. Zeus didn't want any of us to leave the front line. But your mother kept pestering him nonstop, 'It's a trap, it's a diversion, blah, blah, blah.' She wanted to come back herself, but Zeus was not going to let his number one strategist leave his side while we're battling Typhon. And so naturally he sent me to talk to you."

"But it's a trap!" Annabeth insisted. "Is Zeus blind?"

Thunder rolled through the sky.

"I'd watch the comments girl," Hermes warned. "Zeus is not blind or deaf. He has not left Olympus completely undefended."

"But there are these blue lights—"

"Yes, yes. I saw them. Some mischief by that insufferable goddess of magic, Hecate, I'd wager, but you may have noticed they aren't doing any damage. Olympus has strong magical wards. Besides, Aeolus, the King of the Winds, has sent his most powerful minions to guard the citadel. No one save the gods can approach Olympus from the air. They would be knocked out of the sky."

Sylvie raised her hand. "Um... sir?"

"Ah," Hermes regarded her expressionlessly, "Sylvie Duvall. I'm glad I made you go on that first quest of yours. I do hope it prepared you."

"Uh—for what?"

"Is that the question you wanted to ask me?"

"Oh," Sylvie finally put her hand back down. "I guess not... I just—What about that materializing/teleporting thing y'all do?"

"That's a form of air travel too, Sylvie Duvall. Very fast, but the wind gods are faster. No, if Kronos wants Olympus, he'll have to march through the entire city with his arm and take the elevators! Can you see him doing this?"

Hermes made it sound pretty ridiculous—hordes of monsters going up in an elevator twenty-two at a time, listening to "Stayin' Alive." Still, Sylvie didn't like it.

"Maybe just a few of you could come back," Percy suggested.

Hermes shook his head impatiently. "Percy Jackson, you don't understand. Typhon is our greatest enemy."

"I thought that was Kronos."

The god's eyes glowed. "No, Percy. In the old days, Olympus was almost overthrown by Typhon. He is husband of Echidna—"

"Met her at the Arch," Percy muttered to Sylvie. "Not nice."

"—and the father of all monsters. We can never forget how close he came to destroying us all; how he humiliated us! We were more powerful back in the old days. Now we can expect no help from Poseidon because he's fighting his own war. Hades sits in his realm and does nothing, and Demeter has suddenly chosen to follow his lead because of her daughter Persephone. It will take all our remaining power to oppose the storm giant. We can't divide our forces, nor wait until he gets to New York. We have to battle him now. And we're making progress."

Sylvie was only caught up on what Hermes mentioned about Sylvie's mother. Demeter, who hated Hades and the Underworld, pulled herself out of the fight of saving her own civilization for Persephone. Sylvie angrily thought that her mother's unyielding love and attachment to her family was going to be her downfall. But then, Sylvie wouldn't be so different from Demeter, would she? Sylvie got even more upset that she understood her mother's stance. Especially when the gods were Demeter's family too. How the goddess of grain could simply cower away from a fight as grand as this was beyond Sylvie.

She caught herself in surprise. For Sylvie—the timid Demeter kid—to be thinking this... well, that really did say a lot. But Sylvie didn't know if that was about her progress of her mother's foolishness.

"Progress?" Percy broke Sylvie from her thoughts. "Typhon nearly destroyed St. Louis."

"Yes," Hermes admitted. "But he destroyed only half of Kentucky. He's slowing down. Losing power."

Sylvie wasn't going to argue, but it sounded like Hermes was just trying to convince himself.

In the corner, the Ophiotaurus mooed sadly.

"Please, Hermes," Annabeth said. "You said my mother wanted to come. Did she give you any messages for us?"

"Messages," he muttered. "'It'll be a great job,' they told me. 'Not much work. Lots of worshippers.' Hmph. Nobody cares what I have to say. It's always about other people's messages."

"Um," Sylvie cleared her throat, "what do you have to say... Lord Hermes?"

Hermes snapped out of his rambling to look back at Sylvie. For a moment, Sylvie thought she cracked him out of his bad attitude. But then, "That I'm underappreciated in this job and I don't remember why I took it!"

Rodents, George mused. I'm in it for the rodents.

Shhh, Martha scolded. We care what Hermes has to say. Don't we, George? Like that cowgirl right there.

Oh, absolutely. Can we go back to the battle now? I want to do laser mode again. That's fun.

"Quiet, both of you," Hermes grumbled.

The god looked at Annabeth, who was doing her big-pleading-brown-eyes thing. Sylvie knew Hermes was cooked, because no one was safe from that gaze.

"Bah," Hermes said. "Your mother said to warn you that you are on your own. You must hold Manhattan without the help of the gods. As if I didn't know that. Why they pay her to be the wisdom goddess, I'm not sure."

"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

"She said you should try plan twenty-three. She said you would know what that meant."

Annabeth's face paled. Obviously she knew what it meant, and she didn't like it. "Go on."

"This is for Sylvie," Hermes looked at her. "She said that your fatal flaw isn't the only thing holding you back. And not to make the same mistake as your mother, because love can be as much a weakness as it is a strength."

Sylvie wasn't sure whose face was redder: Percy's or her's.

"And also that you're underutilizing that earthquake power, I think."

"Oh," said Sylvie blankly, trying to recover. "Was there anything else?"

"Last thing." Hermes turned. "She said to tell Percy: 'Remember the rivers.'"

"Thank you, Hermes," Annabeth said. "And I... I wanted to say... I'm sorry about Luke."

The god's expression hardened like he's turned to marble. "You should've left that subject alone."

Annabeth stepped back nervously. "Sorry?"

"SORRY doesn't cut it!"

George and Martha curled around the caduceus, which shimmered and changed into something that looked suspiciously like a high-voltage cattle prod.

"You should've saved him when you had the chance," Hermes growled at Annabeth. "You're the only one who could have."

Sylvie's eyes were wide. Percy tried to step between them, "What are you talking about? Annabeth didn't—"

"Don't defend her, Jackson!" Hermes turned the cattle prod toward him. "She knows exactly what I'm talking about."

"Maybe you should blame yourself!" Percy glared. "Maybe if you hadn't abandoned Luke and his mom!"

Sylvie felt that this conversation was escalating far too quickly for her to keep up. She really had no idea how to keep up. Especially since Hermes was now raising his cattle prod and growing until he was ten feet. Sylvie thought, Well, that's it.

But as he prepared to strike, George and Martha leaned in close and whispered something in his ear.

Hermes clenched his teeth. He lowered the cattle prod, and it turned back to a staff.

"Percy Jackson," he said, "because you have taken on the curse of Achilles, I must spare you. You are in the hands of the Fates now. But you will never speak to me like that again. You have no idea how much I have sacrificed, how much—"

His voice broke, and he shrank back to human size.

"My son, my greatest pride... my poor May..."

Sylvie was so confused. Who the fuck is May? Hermes sounded absolutely devastated. One minute he was ready to vaporize them. Now he just looked like he needed a hug. It was kind of pathetic.

"Look, Lord Hermes," Percy said. "I'm sorry, but I need to know. What happened to May? She said something about Luke's fate, and her eyes—"

Hermes glared at Percy, and Percy's voice faltered. Who the fuck is May?! The look on his face wasn't really anger, though. It was pain. Deep, incredible pain.

"I will leave you now," Hermes said tightly. "I have a war to fight."

He began to shine. Sylvie turned away and made sure Annabeth did the same, because she was still frozen in shock.

Good luck, Percy, Martha whispered.

Hermes glowed with the light of a supernova. Then he was gone.

"Guys, who's May?" Sylvie asked. "I feel left out."

But Annabeth immediately sat at the foot of her mother's throne and cried.

"What did May do?" Sylvie said incredulously.

Percy hit her in the side, but it was a fond thing. "Luke's mom," he whispered.

Catching Sylvie completely by surprise, he didn't retract his arm. Instead, Percy grabbed her hand and walked Sylvie with him over to Annabeth.

"Annabeth," he said, "it's not your fault. I've never seen Hermes act that way. I guess... I don't know... he probably feels guilty about Luke."

"Yeah," Sylvie nodded, surprisingly calm despite the fact he was still holding her hand. "He's just looking for somebody to blame. There was clearly some sort of life crisis going on there. Don't blame yourself."

Annabeth wiped her eyes. She stared at the hearth like it was her own funeral pyre.

"Percy," she said. "What did you mean about Luke's mother? Did you meet her?"

He nodded reluctantly. "Nico and I visited her. She was a little... different." Percy described May Castellan, a deranged mother who couldn't tell one person from another and lived in a waking nightmare every day. It made Sylvie think of a deranged father who couldn't tell one person from another and lived in a waking nightmare every day.

All us demigods—we know what it's like to have crazy parents, Luke Castellan told Sylvie once. But crazy mortal parents? That's a different story.

Percy must have noticed how close the story could hit to home, so his thumb ran along the back of her hand comfortingly. He acted like he didn't notice he was doing this, just continued on with the story: a weird moment where May's eyes started to glow and she talked about her son's cruel fate.

Annabeth frowned. "That doesn't make sense. But why were you visiting—" Her eyes widened. "Hermes said you bear the curse of Achilles. Hestia said the same thing. Did you... Did you bathe in the River Styx?"

"Don't change the subject."

"Percy!" Sylvie cried incredulous, ripping her hand from his. "Did you or did you not?"

"Um... maybe a little."

Percy told them the story about Nico encouraging Percy to do this for over a year, but he turned Percy into Hades when Nico finally brought Percy to do it. Nico still tried helping Percy out, even if he totally betrayed Percy, so Percy still bathed in the River Styx. Hades caught Percy after with an army of the dead, to which Percy defeated—yes, even Hades himself.

Did Sylvie mention she wanted to make out with him?

She shook her head in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was, Fishstick?"

"I had no choice," Percy said. "It's the only way I can stand up to Luke."

"You mean... fuck, of course!" Annabeth said. "That's why Luke didn't die. He went to the Styx and... Oh, no, Luke. What were you thinking?"

Sylvie and Percy shared discreet looks at the way she spoke of Luke again, but they were unfortunately so used to it that they didn't say anything. Sylvie wondered what Hermes had meant about Annabeth not saving Luke when she'd had the chance. Clearly, she wasn't telling them something.

"The point is he didn't die in the Styx," Percy said. "Neither did I. Now I have to face him."

Sylvie studied Percy's face, trying to see differences since his swim in the Styx. That was why he'd looked so godly in the elevator, and why he still did now. She'd always thought Percy was beautiful, but it was mixed with something sharper now. He was so attractive that it made Sylvie's gut swirl.

"We—" Sylvie swallowed, trying to discard out the distracting thoughts and just agree with whatever Percy was probably saying. "We have to defend Olympus."

"You're right," Annabeth exhaled. "My mom mentioned—"

"Plan twenty-three."

Annabeth rummaged in her pack and pulled out Daedalus's laptop. The blue Delta symbol glowed on the top when she booted it up. She opened a few files and started to read.

"Here it is," she said. "Gods, we have a lot of work to do."

"One of Daedalus's inventions?"

"A lot of inventions... dangerous ones. If my mother wants me to use this plan, she must think things are very bad." She looked at them. "What about her messages to you two—Sylvie holding herself back from earthquake powers, and Percy having to 'remember the rivers.' What does that mean?"

Sylvie shook her head. "I've made the ground shake, like, twice. But if I thought that power was of any use, trust me, I wouldn't be holding myself back."

"I don't know either," Percy admitted.

Just then the Stoll brothers ran in the throne room.

"You need to see this," Connor said. "Now!"

And he darted right back out. Annabeth sprinted right after him. Before Sylvie followed, Percy grabbed her hand again and laced their fingers together.

Sylvie looked over with a smile. "This is new," she held up their shared grip between them.

"So it seems," he hummed, grinning. Percy squeezed her hand once.

"Any reason as to why?" Sylvie pressed her lips together, as her smile threatened to turn into an all-out beam.

"Because I want to." Percy nodded at Sylvie with his chin, "And you like it."

She deserved a medal for not blushing. Sylvie started out of the throne room, and because she was holding Percy's hand, he came dragging along behind her.

"It's okay, Duvall," he teased, "I like you, too."

Sylvie was going to die of a heart attack before Kronos's forces ever came near.

The other campers had gathered in a small park at the edge of the mountain. At first, Sylvie didn't understand the problem, because the blue lights in the sky had stopped. But they were clustered at the guardrail, looking down at Manhattan. The railing was lined with those tourist binoculars, where you could deposit one golden drachma and see the city. Campers were using every single one.

Sylvie looked down at the city. She could see almost everything from here—the East River and the Hudson River carving the shape of Manhattan, the grid of streets, the lights of skyscrapers, the dark stretch of Central Park in the north. Everything looked normal, but something was wrong.

"I don't... hear anything," Annabeth said.

That was the problem.

Even from this height, Sylvie should've heard the noise of the city—she thought about what Percy told her about New York that night sailing the Sea of Monsters—the hum of a huge metropolis.

But you couldn't.

"What did they do?" Percy's voice sounded tight and angry.

He pushed Michael Yew away from the binoculars and took a look. Much more politely, Sylvie peered out of the binoculars Cedar was using.

In the streets below, traffic had stopped. Pedestrians were lying on the sidewalks, or curled up in doorways. There was no sign of violence, no wrecks, nothing like that. It was as if all the people in New York had simply decided to stop whatever they were doing and pass out.

"Are they dead?" Silena asked in astonishment.

Ice coated Sylvie's stomach. A line from the prophecy rang in her ears: And see the world in endless sleep.

"Not dead," Sylvie said. "The invasion's started."

Percy nodded. "Morpheus has put the entire island of Manhattan to sleep."

╰━━━ ◦ ❀ ◦ ❀◦ ━━━╯

YAILEY BAPS...

I'm so sorry this chapter is so long it's literally 7,609 words but I couldn't figure out a way to split it in half...

Hello Percy Post River Styx I've been expecting you...

Fellas Fellas Persylv nation are we okay Are we standing on two feet

I dedicate this chapter to tvgirlmuse because I just spent around 30 minutes of my life spilling my Persylv secrets to her. Lyn my child my Leo Valdez to my Percy Jackson I love you

Anyone else riding to battle in a strawberry van belting the lyrics to "Hot In Here" by Nelly??? Demeter cabin, Aphrodite cabin, and Pollux friend group I have grown rather fond of you

For me it's Persylv thinking Athena's message about love is about them but maybe it's just not...

Onto the Battle of Manhattan I hope nothing bad happens to anyone!